Local Shanghai Fare

Shanghaiese cuisine is often referred to in Chinese as Shanghai's "ben bang cai" (benbangcai,本帮菜) or "local dishes". Because this local cuisine really encapsulates both the Shanghai temperament and regional characteristics, when you come to Shanghai, sampling "ben ban cai" is a must. Shanghai cuisine employs a variety of cooking and food preparation methods including: braising wth soy sauce, frying and broiling, stir frying, steaming, cooking over charcaol, and pickling. To most people, the main characteristics of "ben bang cai" can be roughly boiled down to heavy oils and red sauces. Shanghai cuisine indeed frequently employs thick juices, heavy flavors, lots of oil and sugar, and bright colors. It may be more accurate to generalize Shang-hai cooking as a type of soy sauce braising. Still, "ben bang cai" is not the be all end all of Shanghai cuisine. Some people clearly differentiate "ben bang cai" and "hai pai cai" — "the Shanghai school of cooking". At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic, there were a total of 16 different styles of cooking that coexisted in Shanghai, called "shiliu bang" or "the sixteen groups" of which the "ben bang" was considered the most local. Today restaurants serving "ben bang cai" advertise that they serve the most original and authentic of Shanghai flavors. In reality, "ben bang cai" shows significant culinary influences from Suzhou andYuxi. "Hai pai cai" is considered the new wave of Shanghai cuisine, and has incorporated cooking methods from Cantonese, Sichuan, Nanjing, Yangzhou, Suzhou, Yuxi, and even western styles of cooking. "Hai pai cai" focuses on retaining the best of traditional Shanghai cooking and improving it with the best aspects of other culinary schools. Many of Shanghai cuisine's most famous dishes trace back to humble peasant begin-ings. Shredded pork and soybean soup has direct links with the popular old dish "meat and bean stew". The fermented earthen bowl is a dish that comes straight out of the suburban Shanghai farming houses. A recipe that has been around in one form or another for two hundred years, the fer-mented earthen bowl combines pig innards, pig feet, fresh soup, and fermented gluti-nous rice and barley gravy into an earthen jar, which is then steamed. The dish has a clear refreshing broth and carries the fresh fragrance of spirits. Over the last one hun-dred years, ingredients and cooking methods used in the earthen bowl have continued to improve, and the earthen bowl has been replaced with a ceramic one.

Fermented gravies and dishes marinated in fermented gravy are unique to Shanghai cooking. Cold dishes included chicken, pig's feet, bean pods, winter bamboo shoots and tripe marinated in a gravy of fermented barley and rice. Hot dishes also use marinated items such as deep fried mack-eral marinated in fermented sauce (氽糟青鱼) and shredded pork and soy bean soup (肉丝黄豆汤).

Traditional cooking methods aside, some famous contemporary chefs have increased the scope of Shanghai cuisine with some innovative new dishes such as mackerel liver (青鱼秃肺), small shrimp with sea cucumber (虾子大乌参), crabs cooked in butter (炒蟹黄油), and eight treasures in hot sauce (八宝辣酱). The following restaurants are well known for serving up some great local Shanghai cuisine. Included in the list are several chain restaurants.

Ye Olde Station Restaurant(上海老站)

Located at 201 Caoxi Beilu. To get there, take bus lines 926, 920, 02, 42 or subway line number one to the Xujiahui station. Ye Olde Station Restaurant is right by the sub-way exit; telephone: 021-64272233. Hours of Operation: 11 am to 2 pm and 5:30 pm to 10 pm. The restaurant stops taking orders at 10 pm. Reservations are necessary for dinner.

Fee: 100 RMB and 150 RMB per person is enough to eat quite well.

The Ye Olde Station Restaurant occupies what was once a monetary connected to theXujiahui Catholic Church. Fully enveloped in its Shanghai hai pai style, Ye Olde Sta-tion brings old Shanghai to life. Serving up 1920's and 1930's era Shanghai cuisine, Ye Olde Station avoids heavy oils and dense colors. The chefs here also cook without MSG, to preserve the fresh flavors of their ingredients. Try to get a table near the win-dow to enjoy views of the garden.

Recommendations: Celery and bean curd rolls, special vegetarian chicken, tofu and crab meat, stir-fried shelled river shrimp, minced crabmeat and tofu, spiced duck with lotus leaves, yellow croaker chowder with shepherd's-purse, stir-fried stewed eel's pudding, fried and braised clover, date paste cookies, and a shiitake mushroom vegetable wrap.

Xi's Garden(席家花园酒家)

Located at 1 Dongping Lu, right next to Sasha's; telephone: 021-64747052 and 64729041. This is a popular restaurant so it would be best to call and make reservations before you go.

Fee: Expect to pay 60 RMB to 100 RMB per person.

Xi's garden was originally the residence of Xi Dexian, president of the Kuomintang government's Central Bank of China. Built in 1913, this Spanish style house was the centerpiece of the Xi family's five garden residences. People say that when the restaurant was opened, Xi Dexian's three daughters made a special trip Shanghai to visit the Xi's Garden. Serving classical Shanghai dishes, we recommend Xi Garden's mashed green soybeans, roasted pigeon, crystal shrimp, and quick-boiled crab.

Peace Mansion(和平官邸)

Located at 158 Fenyang Lu; to get there the take the 42 and 96 bus lines to the Fen-yang Lu stop; telephone: 021-57575777; hours of operation: 1 lam-11pm.

Fee: Private rooms require a minimum expenditure of 500 RMB; tea runs at 35 RMB per pot; if you do not want to reserve a private dining room, expect to pay about 100 RMB per person.

This old house was once the official residence of Kuomintang intelligence chief, Dai Li. After the Chinese civil war, the house was taken over by Lin Liguo. After the Peace Mansion moved in, this manor immediately became a prime location for sampling traditional Shanghai fare. Each of the restaurant's rooms is named after a dif-ferent Nobel Peace Prize Winner (thus the name of the restaurant). Peace Mansion's kitchen rums out Shanghai, Cantonese, Si-chuan, and old style stewing cuisines, and each cooking style is under the control of a different chef.

Recommendations: Goose liver, which runs 178 RMB for about sixteen slices; other house specialties include: snow veg-etables and roasted cod, Grandma's Soy Braised Pork, egg yolk with crispy beans, small white shrimp in fermented sauce (38 RMB), and steamed green crab.

Victorian Home(老洋房花园饭店)

Located in the Luwan District at 27 Shanxing Lu (between Shaanxi Nanlu and Rui Jin Erlu); to get there, take the subway to the Shaanxi Nanlu Station, and then follow Maoming Lu to Shaoxing Lu; telephone: 021-64333506.

Fee: Expect to pay 100 RMB to 150 RMB per person.

Du Yuesheng was one of early twentieth century Shanghai's most legendary figures. Originally a vagrant, Du Yuesheng man-aged to grab a foothold on this "paradise of foreigner travelers" and eventually become the leader of Shanghai's organized crime syndicates. He became involved in a number of local industries such as enter-tainment, culture, education, finance, and news. This two storey garden residence was Du Yuesheng's gift to his fourth wife, though it has since been converted into an upscale Chinese restaurant. Serving Shanghai manor-style cuisine, the food here has both the comforting feeling of home and old Shanghai style care and craftsmanship. The flavors are very authentic.

Recommendations: The potato salad and mashed taro has a very good reputation around town. Made with a lot of butter, the mashed taro is tastes very sweet. Victorian Home's high grade beef is a little expensive at 68 RMB; it is fresh and tender, but the portion is a bit small. The cheese baked silver cod is a bit more reasonable, and the chef has added the citrus flavors of orange to offset the fish's richness. The traditional smoked fish is sweet. The eight treasures chili paste New Years cake is 48 RMB per serving. It is small but tender, made with fruits, shrimp, and bamboo shoots. It is worth a try, as does the fried baozi (stuffed buns), a common recipe to which the Victo-rian Home adds its own flair.

Old Shanghai Moon(老夜上海)

Located at 59 Maoming Nanlu. To get there, take the subway number one line and get off at the Shaanxi Nanlu station. This restaurant has a number of branches around Shanghai, and serves authentic modem Shanghai cuisine, Shanghai night snacks, quality stir fried dishes, specially prepared slow-cooked noodles, and local dim sum. Expect to pay 100 RMB per person.

Home's

Located at 791 Julu Lu, right off of Fu-min Lu; to get there you can take subway line one to the Shaanxi Nanlu station or bus lines 911, 02, 104, 24, 94, 128, 41 to the Julu Lu stop; telephone: 021-54030010 and 54030060.

Converted from a three storey old west-em-style residence, Home's elegant Shang-hai cuisine will make you feel as if you are a guest in a traditional Shanghai home.

Recommendations: the house soy braised pork (32 RMB); an innovative cold dish: duck tongue and fruit salad; special hand torn salty chicken; and smoked butterfish. Try some of the small dim sum as well, such as the mango pudding, polished glutinous rice with red dates, fermented glutinous rice soup and rice flour dumplings, and deep fried glutinous rice cake. Expect to pay 100 RMB per person.

Le Ting (乐庭)

Located at 878 Julu Lu (near Shu Lu); to get there, you can take subway line one to the Shaanxi Nanlu station or bus lines 911, 02, 104, 24, 94, 128,41 to the Julu Lu stop; telephone: 021-62475557.

Fee: Expect to pay 150 RMB per person.

Established inside a 1920's era French house, all of Le Ting's service staff wears 1930's long gowns and mandarin shirts.

The restaurant only seats 30 people. Le Ting specializes in imperial cuisine, and they never use spices or MSG. Everything you reserved here is cooked in its own original juices and flavors.

Recommendations: Taibai drunken chicken, sweet dates stuffed with lotus seeds, smoked ocean eel cubes, frozen cured pork, oil fried river shrimp, small shrimp with bamboo shoot slices; twice flavored mandarin fish, kungpao shrimp, black pepper beef, Jiangnan crispy duck, and a mixed vegetable dish made with tomato, beans, and yangkai-hua squash.

Wang Bao He(王宝和酒家)

Located at 603 Fuzhou Lu; telephone: 021-633223673.

Shanghai locals love crab, and Shang-hai's most famous and expensive crab feast was created at Wang Bao He, otherwise known as "the Crab King". Expect to pay between 200 and 500 RMB for the Wang Bao He's crab dinner. Wang Bao He serves other dishes as well, but they are all pretty mediocre. Crab is what people come for, and Wang Bao He is prepared with specialized crab eating utensils. Wang Bao He will open your eyes to crab dishes you never knew existed.